A Russian Security Official Questions
Health of Washington’s Leadership
RT News
MOSCOW (February 14, 2024) — A high-ranking official in Russia’s Security Council has voiced alarm over the risk of a nuclear “catastrophe” arising from the Pentagon chief’s health problems and the declining faculties of US President Joe Biden, warning of a possible “management mistake” by America’s leadership.
Speaking to the Izvestiya newspaper for an interview published on Wednesday, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Mikhail Popov said Washington’s political instability could trigger an accidental escalation.
”In the overall difficult and nervous internal political situation in the US that has emerged recently, the price of a management mistake, committed by the national leaders, either deliberately or involuntarily, has increased significantly,” he said. “And there won’t be much distance to a global catastrophe.”
Popov stressed that he was not referring to “a banana republic,” but rather “a state that has nuclear weapons and constantly claims to be the world hegemon.” He added that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s cancer diagnosis and Biden’s old age “have raised questions about the global security system” and the US chain of command, asking “How is the decision to use nuclear weapons generally made in the United States?”
“The secretary of defense is not there, and no one knows where he is or who is replacing him. The press writes that some of his responsibilities were assigned to Deputy Minister Kathleen Hicks. But she was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time,” he said.
The official went on to observe an episode during the Cold War, when a US Air Force major was dismissed for questioning how he could know whether a nuclear launch order “came from a sane president,” as the commander in chief is responsible for employing America’s nuclear arsenal.
Austin’s prostate cancer diagnosis came as a surprise not only to the US public, but to Biden himself, with the Pentagon chief acknowledging that his team did not inform the White House of the news. He has since been re-hospitalized with a bladder issue, for which he was reportedly treated with undisclosed “non-surgical procedures.”
As the oldest president in US history at 81, Biden’s fitness is among the most pressing issues for American voters as they look ahead to the 2024 election. In a recent NBC News poll, 76% of respondents voiced major or moderate concerns over the president’s “mental and physical health,” while even special counsel Robert Hur – who was tapped to probe alleged mishandling of classified documents by Biden – concluded that the president has “diminished faculties in advancing age.”
US and Russian Presidents Have Access to
“Nuclear Briefcases” that Can
Trigger a Nuclear War in Minutes
Nuclear Famine
US and Russian Presidents are constantly accompanied by a military officer carrying “the nuclear briefcase” (nicknamed the “football”), which contains something that resembles a laptop computer that allows the President to give the permission order to launch a nuclear strike (in Russia, the suitcase is called cheget).
The permission order to launch can be transmitted in less than one minute, and it only requires a few minutes for the Minuteman intercontinental missiles (ICBMs) to then be launched (hence the name “Minutemen”). Today the US has 400 Minuteman III ICBMs in Montana and North Dakota. They are all kept at launch-ready status. Their design requires that they remain powered up and ready to launch 24/7.
Minutemen III missiles are capable of launching multiple warheads (up to 3 warheads), which can each be independently targeted. The term used to describe this is MIRV – Multiple Independently-targeted Re-entry Vehicles.
The Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) carried by Trident subs are also MIRVd; they can carry 8 warheads but under the New START agreement, most of the Trident missiles have had a number of these warheads “downloaded”, or removed, so that they typically carry 3 or 4 warheads each.
The Trident subs are always moving in and out of areas where they can launch their weapons to hit the designated targets. At least 4 Tridents are typically kept at “hard alert”, that is, in an area where they can receive the launch order and launch within 15 minutes.
READ MORE:
European Union needs it’s own nukes – MEP
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
